False smut

Caused by: Ustilaginoidea virens
Problem Category: Fungal Disease
Symptoms: Individual rice grains transformed into a mass of yellow fruiting bodies, growth of velvety spores that enclose floral parts. Immature spores slightly flattened, smooth, yellow and covered by a membrane. Growth of spores results in broken membrane. Mature spores are orange in colour and turn yellowish green or greenish black. Only few grains in the panicle are infected and the rest are normal.
Comments: Favourable Conditions: This is more severe in kharif season. Low temperature (20OC), high relative humidity (greater than 92%), moderate rain fall with intermittent clear and drizzling weather during flowering.
Management: 1. Destroy crop residues and weeds. Use disease free seeds. 2. Varieties like Swarna Shreya, Manohar Sali, and Keteki Joha exhibit moderate resistance; Cultivars like Ranjit, Bahadur, and CO 59 show tolerance to false smut infections. 3. Early planted crop has less smut balls than the late planted crop. 4. At the time of harvesting, diseased plants should be removed and destroyed so that sclerotia do not fall in the field
Control: spray 2 times 5% Cowdung+Asafoetida solution in 10 days interval.